The Gnomon Audiobook

20 March 2018

Yes, that is my author photo substantially messed around with using public domain images and a bit of software I have because I don’t have photoshop skills and like making weird images, however amateurish. No, it has nothing to do with the audiobook really. Sorry. I just like posts to have accompanying visuals.

The audiobook: right. It’s happening, but I don’t know the time frame. There’s a discussion going on about exactly how to approach it, because the book is HUGE and there are games I played with text which one cannot easily replicate with voice(s). As soon as I know the schedule and the reality I will say so very loudly, and yes, I do hear everyone saying WE WANT THE DAMN AUDIOBOOK NICK and I get it. This is one of those situations where I am not in direct control of the production process and that process is subject to the constraints and indignities (but also benefits from the power and financial heft) of the corporate process.

Whelm

12 March 2018

Which I love. Obviously, this is where we get “overwhelm“, which for me has a connotation of inundation.

All good, but here’s the thing that’s making me happy today: “underwhelm“. It’s a somewhat ironic coinage, and it turns out to be older than you might expect (1934). Pondering “whelm” on the bus this morning, though, it struck me that “underwhelm” has a ghost meaning to go with the literal meaning of “overwhelm”.

If:

Overwhelm – to cover completely, overpower; to capsize by force of flow.

then:

Underwhelm – to capsize by withdrawal; to suffer (or inflict) a reversal by removing what is beneath.